Punk Quotes · Page 15

The punk-rock ethos was "Do it yourself. Anyone can do this. We're not sent from the heavens."

— Michael Stipe

Punk was over in two years. That was the only damn good thing about it.

— Julie Burchill

I loved Riot Grrl. Not only was it a punk rock revolution, but it meant you could get dressed for a night…

— Caitlin Moran

I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.

— Gary Oldman

If you've sold over a million records, you are not punk rock, you are milking the system for everything that it's worth.

— Billy Corgan

There are characters in [punk] that do deliberately go as far as they can in certain kind of taboo areas.

— Richard Hell

No one ever really talks about the punk-rock involvement in hip-hop, which influenced Afrika Bambaata.

— KRS-One

I'm very true to the old punk ethics of honesty and truthfulness and integrity... and still be authentic.

— Viv Albertine

By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and…

— Billy Bragg

Madisyn [Shipman] was great. She's a really talented kid. We got along great. It was fun, in between scenes, I'd pull out…

— Billie Joe Armstrong

All punk music is is rebellion, going against the grain. It takes different forms. Sometimes it's a band throwing their instruments around…

— Mura Masa

For all the different videos that we got to dress up in, I love fantasy stuff, so for 'Radioactive,' I felt like…

— Avi Kaplan

I grew up going to punk shows, that kind of thing - I don't wanna make pop punk! - but I like…

— Grimes

I am very grateful to punk because I was a girl, and I felt like if I got in a band, I'd…

— Chrissie Hynde

When I was a teenager, you couldn't get straight pants. Then in '76, when punk started to hit, it was a revelation…

— Denis Leary

Don't try and tell me Green Day are punk. They're not, they're plonk and they're bandwagoning on something they didn't come up…

— John Lydon

What we get in punk these days is the "anti-anti": Someone comes up with something, then the next generation is against that,…

— Geoff Rickly

I sometimes feel a bit embarrassed to play guitar. There's something - I don't want to sound ungrateful - but there's something…

— Jonny Greenwood

I got into punk at 17 after discovering an all-girl band from Long Island on the Internet called The Devotchkas - four…

— Kate Nash

The 1970s was probably the most exciting decade to be a teenager, from discovering Little Richard at the end of the 1960s…

— Boy George

I started playing guitar at the age of 8 or 9 years. Very early, and I was like already into pop music…

— Christian Fennesz

A lot of people of color in the music industry are still more interested in embracing things that are considered white canon,…

— Kelela

I think after Iceland's independence in 1944, we were not very sure of ourselves and our confidence was really low. It took…

— Bjork

I hated it so much as a child. I just didn't like it when punk bands went metal, it really bothered me.…

— Stephen Malkmus

Growing up in Orange County, it was all O.C. punk, L.A. punk. Black Flag, all the SST stuff.

— Ty Segall

To be involved in the subculture of punk rock puts you in a minority.

— Cedric Bixler-Zavala

“jazz is punk for old people. I guess that explains it, because I don’t like punk, either.”

— Gayle Forman

“It was the freedom to experiment that made this experiment called Freedom possible.”

— Justin Sirois

I love Nirvana, Weezer and a lot of pop punk stuff - Blink-182, I loved.

— Frank Dukes

If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, Punk, don't flatter me.

— J-Ro

I was in a couple punk bands as a kid. I did some more experimental stuff with my friend Dan for a…

— Venetian Snares

Being in a band is being punk, no matter what. You have to dedicate your life to it.

— Charlotte Caffey

Most of the people who call me a sellout were 7 when I was down face-first in the punk trenches.

— Henry Rollins

Doing drag in a male-dominant culture is an act of treason. It's the most punk-rock thing you can do.

— RuPaul

We certainly are proud of our punk-rock heritage, but when people who like other kinds of music are into your band, it's…

— Matt Skiba

The future of punk rock has nothing to do with guitars. Everything interesting that I've heard in years has been nearly all…

— Geoff Rickly

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.

— Patti Smith

Punk rock will never die, until something more dangerous replaces it.

— Jello Biafra

Any time people are breaking outside the norm and playing something that isn't expected - that feels like punk to me.

— Tim Commerford

I'm a huge fan of sing-songy lyrics and loud guitars. Whatever punk band does that gets a gold star!

— Kim Shattuck